Quick Thoughts on Free Agency...

Well, I'm a lot happier today than on July 1, 2008, when the Rangers signed Wade Redden and I started ripping apart my girlfriend's house in anger. By the way, she was mad.

Let's put it this way. If I had told you 3 days ago that the Rangers were going to trade Scott Gomez and his $7.357M Cap hit over the next 5 years for Marian Gaborik and his $7.5M Cap hit over 5 years, would you? And as an added bonus, Long Island-native Chris Higgins would be on board, adding grit, passion, energy, and a few goals. Sounds like a good deal, right?

Indeed it is. Glen Sather got it right - get Gaborik and his frail body for just money, and ignore Dany Heatley and his mind games when it would have cost money AND a few players.

Donald Brashear... whatever. It's going to be very hard to root for him, but he'll protect Gaborik, Ryan Callahan, Chris Drury, and whatever Russian named Nik ends up on the team.

I would like to wish a fond farewell to Freddy Sjostrom, though, who is off to Calgary, where he will no doubt be beneficial to their defense-first movement and can also play first-line winger with Jarome Iginla, if need be. Better him than Jamie Lundmark with Iginla, no?

And while I'm upset that Mike Cammellari signed in Montreal, he did get a very high deal from them. $6M for him is too much I think. If he signed in New York for $5M, okay, but not that much.

I also think Gomez and Cammellari, if teamed up, should do very well. If nothing else, a power play with Gomez dishing to Cammellari and his old buddy Brian Gionta will be spectacular. With Andrei Markov and possibly Alexei Kovalev on the ice then also, that could be killer.

Oh, and about the Hossa deal. It's not 12 years. It's 8 years. Well, it's 12 years, but it's a fake 4 years at the end. He'll be making the league-minimum for a player over 35 then, and he might not even play. Either him or Chicago probably said, "Ok, 8 years for 7 million each year." "No, better idea, higher amount, 4 longer years, $5.2 million Cap hit. Detroit did it, why can't we!"

* * *

So this is how the Rangers roster shapes up, as of now. Don't pay any attention to lines or positions, and keep in mind trades can still happen. Last year, if you remember, Ryan Hollweg was traded to Toronto on like July 14th.

Avery - Dubinsky - Gaborik
Higgins - Drury - Callahan
Voros - Anisimov - Boyle
Korpikoski - Brashear - Zherdev

That's 12 forwards, but we don't know about Zherdev. Brashear and Voros won't be everyday players, and who knows about Boyle. We also don't know about Hartford and who might make the team (P.A. Parenteau? Mark Bell? Jordan Owens? Dale Weise?) So we have 8 forwards to play everyday, possibly 10, but there still is a need.

Expect atleast one or two more forwards, hopefully a puck-carrying, first-line center, if there are any available. Not everything happens on July 1, remember. Markus Naslund was signed July 3 last year. Uh, so was Dmitri Kalinin.

On D...

Redden - Rozsival
Staal - Girardi
Potter - Gilroy - Sanguenetti - Del Zotto

No room for a big D really, especially since the money should be spent on offense instead. Mike Komisarek would've been excellent, but maybe Rob Scuderi can be signed on the cheap.

* * *

Should make for an interesting Day 2. I would definitely expect 2 forwards to be signed, and maybe a veteran 7th D so that there aren't too many rookies on the backline. Hey, maybe Paul Mara will take another discount to play here.

What I Expect on July 1...

This is what I expect to happen on July 1 at noon, the start of free agency...

- TSN/Versus to have awkward coverage from noon until 2:00, when the signings start to happen. People like Ed Olczyk and Pierre McGuire (whose real name, by the way, no joke, is Regis) will sit talking about what might happen and periodically write text messages to other people, fishing for a story, while on the air.

- Colton Orr will not be offered a contract with the Rangers. On a related note, expect a lot more mangames missed in 2009-10 to injury without an enforcer in the lineup (remember the awful decision to sit him in Game 6 and what Donald Brashear did to Blair Betts?).

- The Islanders will sign an enforcer to protect John Tavares, Kyle Okposo, and Josh Bailey, much like the Capitals did when they signed Brashear to protect Alex Ovechkin. By the way, Orr and Brashear are both unrestricted free agents.

- Marian Hossa will sign on in Pittsburgh, citing "I think the Penguins give me the best chance to win a Cup, and I'm just happy to be here... again."

- The Rangers will not make a big splash in the free agent pool for once, mostly because they'll have no Cap-space due to 4 big splashes in the past 2 Julys.

- Noticing that they only have Aaron Voros, Mark Bell, and Brian Boyle under contract, the Rangers will go and sign another "gritty" 3rd/4th line winger who can't fight and won't score. Oh, what? Ryan Hollweg is a free agent? Quick, give him a million dollars!

- Glen Sather will once again laugh at Nik Antropov wanting $5M for his 59 points last year, while basking in the fact that he gave Chris Drury over $7M for comparable numbers.

- Bill Guerin will stay in the Atlantic division, either re-signing in Pittsburgh, or heading to Philadelphia or back to New Jersey.

- No free agents will want to play on Long Island again, regardless of who they drafted 1st overall.

- Both the Islanders and Rangers will want Mike Cammallari and his 40-goal season, but won't be able to sign him. The Rangers won't because they have no money, and the Islanders won't because, well, see above.

- The Sedin twins will not get their 12-year contracts because no GM in their right mind would give away two contracts to people who will be 40 when they expire. And no GM would be willing to pay $6M against the Cap to two different players when they are 37, 38, 39, or 40. Except, of course, Glen Sather, but luckily, the Rangers have no Cap room.

- Blair Betts and Freddy Sjostrom will not re-sign in New York. On a related note, the #1 PK will fall to around #15 or so, and Drury, Brandon Dubinsky, Michal Rozsival, etc., will be too tired to do anything on offense from playing so much PK-time.

- Journeyman Mike Sillinger will retire.

- Sather will forfeit 4 1st round draft picks by sending a $6.5M offer sheet to Vancouver for horrendously out-of-shape Kyle Wellwood.

- Instead of big, mean, passionate Antropov, Sather will opt for gutless, fancy, non-scoring Nik Zherdev.

- Instead of going for a good defenseman like Rob Scuderi, Mike Komisarek, Mattias Ohlund, or Francois Beauchemin, they'll probably take a salary-eater like Hal Gill or Marc-Andre Bergeron.

- Scuderi... Islander? He's in line a for big raise and they have the Cap-space, and he's from Syosset.

A Vacation...

As the Rangers disappear, so do I.

Been watching a little of the NHL Playoffs (mainly Anaheim/Detroit). I'm rooting for Vancouver, even though I wouldn't be angry if Boston won.

Read about Markus Naslund retiring also. Some outlets (New York Times, for one) claim that if he didn't retire, he would've been bought out. The outcome of a buyout or a retirement would've been the same - him not on the ice - but now he saves the Rangers cap space (if my calculations are correct, about $1.3M per year is saved in cap space). Class act from a good guy. He could've done the scumbag think and taken the buyout like most people in NY would have done (Stephon Marbury, Alex Rodriguez, etc.), but he chose to go out on his own terms. It's just sad that the news of an upcoming (and unconfirmed) buyout had to leak.

Naslund had the will, but he didn't have the legs anymore. He tried every game, but his skills declined severely, from a career-high 104 in 2002-03, to 84, 79, 60, 55, and now 46. He did have a decent showing in 7 postseason games this year, going 1-2-3.

* * *

So what can the Rangers, saddled with 4 cumbersome contracts, do next season?

Of the pending UFAs, Blair Betts and Colton Orr should be invited back. Betts is the best penalty killer in the league and is good on faceoffs (49.3% this year, not great, but serviceable). Orr is needed so goons like Donald Brashear don't take liberties with Betts or Sean Avery. Nik Antropov should be back, I think. I know other fans don't agree, but I think he plays with a passion in NY and likes being a Ranger.

On D, Derek Morris and Paul Mara are UFAs. I like both of them, but there won't be room unless Wade Redden or Michal Rozsival get traded. Redden is nearly immovable, but Rozsival might be moved if the Rangers lose picks in the process.

Of the restricted free agents, a lot of people are torn on Nik Zherdev. I think he has all the talent in the world, but can he mine it? I wouldn't mind him coming back on a one-year deal, maybe to play with Artem Anisimov and Antropov, but if they let him go, fine. A friend of mine said it would be good if another team offers him a contract and the Rangers take the draft pick compensation.

Ryan Callahan and Brandon Dubinsky will obviously be re-signed. Corey Potter probably will, the be a 6th defenseman this year, or just to serve as a backup incase injuries occur.

Now, Fred Sjostrom and Lauri Korpikoski.

I vote in favor of Sjostrom. He is one of the fastest on the team, and he gives it his all every single shift, much like Petr Prucha did. Plus, him and Betts are a great tandem on the PK, and Sjostrom is so versatile, he can play 2nd line or 4th line.

Korpikoski? Dump him! I know the Rangers didn't have dynamic offensive skills this year, but he didn't help. I know he is a first-round pick a few years ago (in 2004), but who cares. Let him go. Either trade his rights on Draft Day for a pick or prospect, package him with someone, or let him walk.

That's all for tonight. I have in-depth thoughts on this, but they're still muddled right now.

For now, let's just enjoy the playoffs.

Rangers Up 3-1, So Let's Talk About Penalties...

You've watched the game, you TiVo-ed Rangers in 60, and you already read all about the game on the Internet.

Let me just say a few things, then...

- - Sean Avery took 2 penalties in the last half of the third period, the first being on a race for the puck by the Capitals' goal line. I think this was a marginal penalty, at best. It didn't look like he actually meant to hit Milan Jurcina. Granted, I might be completely wrong, because lately it seems like Avery "accidentally" hits people a lot. But it truly appears to me that he was turning his body quickly, didn't see Jurcina bending over, and clocked him on accident in the head.

The second penalty, though, when he hit a Capital in the face/neck with his stick, was stupid. Yes, Brian Pothier sold the move like he got shot by a bazooka, but Avery never should have done it. I will stand by Avery and how he plays, but this was a stupid, selfish move. He normally puts his teammates first on the ice, and everything he does is to get under someone's skin or help his linemates, but this was stupid. Instead of hitting Alex Semin or Alex Ovechkin, he has been concentrating on bums like Tom Poti and Pothier.

Shouldn't the first penalty, the punch on Jurcina, maybe been a 4-minute minor since it drew blood? Or is that only for high-sticking calls?

- - Quick sidenote: I remember a Ranger game in Boston that I was at in 2006-07 when both teams had a #68 and a #81, and I thought that was really cool. (For the record, Jurcina, Jaromir Jagr, Marcel Hossa, and Phil Kessel.)

- - Paul Mara also took 2 stupid penalties. The first was an interference call where he laid someone out away from the play. A dumb penalty, probably, but you could see the point in it. He knocked someone hard who could have gotten to the puck when it wrapped around the boards.

The second one, where he pushed someone who was chasing the puck into a corner, was ridiculous. It, like Avery's stick-to-the-head, served no purpose and just put the Rangers into a 2-minute hole where Ovechkin, Semin, or Mike Green could've dented the Rangers.

- - Mike Green took a "good" penalty before. He was exhausted from playing a full power play, and when he let Fred Sjostrom blaze by him, he hooked him and took him down before Sjostrom could get the puck.

While he never should have let him blow by him like that, he took a good penalty because it saved a breakaway and it didn't lead to a penalty shot. Avery's hit on Pothier and Mara's useless shove were bad penalties. If a penalty stops a scoring chance, or teaches someone a lesson not to mess with your teammates, that's fine, and a solid 2-minute penalty kill can help your team. But useless penalties demoralize you and invigorate the other team.

- - By the way, there was a part in the 3rd period when the Capitals were on the power play that made me laugh. Every player on the ice, Capitals, Rangers, were completely beat. The Capitals keep their players (Ovechkin, Semin, Green, Nik Backstrom) on so long that by the 1:50 mark of the power play they are phoning it in; and the Rangers had their PK unit out for so long because the couldn't clear.

The end result: a listless power play that couldn't even pass the puck, and a PK unit that couldn't even stop a weak pass.

* * *

All in all, a huge game, like I said earlier, and a gigantic win. It leaves a barrier now where they can win in Washington Friday, but they don't have to.

They now know that even if they lose Game 5, they can close it out on home ice Sunday.

Clinched...

The offense wasn't flying, the defense had holes, but the team got it done last night.

Ryan Callahan and Brandon Dubinsky had very strong games. Callahan had 2 points and was a great penalty killer last night. Dubinsky didn't score, but he was close on one, and he played great defense as well. Lauri Korpikoski played good also. Freddy Sjostrom, who went from 2nd line winger back to the 4th line, had a good game in limited use. Blair Betts was solid again in his specialty role on the penalty kill. Chris Drury, a guy who I like but wish didn't come at such with Salary Cap-smothering price tag, played real good as well, and looks a lot calmer and more confident than he did 6 weeks ago. Sean Avery was his usual self, albeit a bit milder, and was useful.

(The only negative I have about Avery was the flyer I received about the opening of a bar he is going to co-own with an art dealer. It said "AVERY-A-PALOOZA" and had a picture of Joey Kocur fighting someone else who presumably played in the 1990s. Were no pictures of Avery himself available?)

On defense, Paul Mara was a warrior, hitting everyone he could and playing well away from the puck. He got hurt, got back up, and still went for a check. Yes, he was out of position and that caused the power play goal against them, but I liked the effort.

As for Wade Redden and Michal Rozsival, I counted 1 good play between the pair, and that was a body check just outside the Rangers' zone when he level Joffrey Lupul.

But the night belonged to Henrik Lundqvist. When the Rangers couldn't crack through Braydon Coburn and the rest of the Flyers defense, and when the Rangers defense let Dan Carcillo, Daniel Briere (aka Lord Farquaad from Shrek, Jeff Carter, Simon Gagne, et al, slip through to the slot unharmed, Lundqvist was there to stop them.

Yes, that save on Carcillo was awesome, but there was so much more to him last night. He goes side-to-side like no other goalie I've ever seen, and he stopped a bunch of tip-ins and deflections last night. The best one I think, other than the glove save on Carcillo, was in the first period. A shot was quickly deflected as he was moving right, and he just stopped and caught it and held it for the whistle.

No, the team didn't play great. They gave up way too many shots, 38 in all, and they were good shots from prime real estate, not crappy shots from the perimeter like the Rangers take. But as long as Henrik Lundqvist is in net playing like he did yesterday, and as long as Avery, Drury, Callahan, and Betts are playing as good as they can, this team can will games. And maybe, just maybe, Redden and Rozsival will stop being a useless waste of a combined $11.5M.

Will that happen? I don't know. You like to think they'll all come alive for the playoffs, but isn't that how every team's fans think around this time?

* * *

My preference for playoff opponent is Washington, for two reasons...

1) They play a more wide-open game than Boston, which means it's high-scoring. And while the terms "Rangers" and "high-scoring" don't normally mesh well, I think they can score 4 on Jose Theodore and try to hold back Alex Ovechkin.

2) Judging by last night's game, how awesome and violent would a Bruins-Canadiens series be? Let those teams beat up on each other, leave us out of it.

Of course, I don't really care who they play, because if you want to go through the playoffs, you have to beat everyone.

If They Miss the Playoffs...

If the Rangers miss the playoffs by a point or two, they should look back to these games as the reason why...

November 28 - Rangers 4, Florida 3, shootout. They give up a goal to Radek Dvorak with under 2 minutes to play in regulation, sending the game to a shootout, giving Florida the extra point.

February 13 - Florida 2, Rangers 1, shootout. Fred Sjostrom scores in the first period, Rangers can't do anything else the whole game, relying on Henrik Lundqvist to stop 38 shots in regulation and 4 more in overtime. Richard Zednik scores the shootout-winner, Panthers get 2 points.

The other games the two played, for the record, was a 4-0 Panther shutout on a Sunday afternoon, 11/30, and another offensively challenged 2-1 regulation loss. It was John Tortorella's first home game, and they took a 1-0 lead in the first, but gave up 2 goals in a minute in the third and lost, giving Florida another 2 points.

Music City Hockey...

Hockey in Tennessee, who would've thought it! 16,241 tickets were sold, about 900 short of a sell-out. There were a few empty seats around me. I sat in the 3rd row, in the middle of the zone where the Rangers shot in the 1st and 3rd periods. I was to the right of the goalies.

The Sommet Center is very nice. Everything in Nashville is compact. It basically goes from 2nd Avenue to 7th Avenue, and then there are 3 main streets - Broadway, Commerce, Church. We stayed on 7th and Church, and the arena is at Broadway and 5th, a 4 block walk. (By the way, it snowed there Thursday.) The inside is nice also, although for some reason we didn't get food or drink there. But everything is clean, even the burger fix-ins bar, which if they had one at MSG I would steer clear away from. 

For those in Nashville, they play the Anaheim Ducks on 3/24 and are selling half-priced hot dogs until the 1st intermission.

Worst Things

- Nothing makes fans angrier than seeing a Sean Avery jersey, and nothing is unfunnier than fans who don't write their own jokes. Yelling "Sloppy seconds!" at a man with an Avery #16 jersey on is like yelling, "Hey, Uncle Jesse!" if you see John Stamos walking down the street. It's not funny. You're not original. It doesn't mean anything. And you're an idiot.

- The kids have stupid whistles that they blow whenever Jordin Tootoo is on the ice. Whistles go "toot, toot," get it? So whenever he's on the ice, we get to have annoying whistles being blown for 45 seconds. Oh, that's fun. I almost punched the 11-year-old in front of me, but settled on taunting his autographed Dan Ellis jersey when the Rangers kept scoring. "Hey, Kid, Pekka Rinne should be in!" It's a good thing Tootoo isn't a good player and doesn't get a lot of ice time, or it would've been unbearable.

- Lack of merchandise in the store. I bought an orange Predators t-shirt because I didn't want a jersey t-shirt of J.P. Dumont, Ellis or Tootoo. And that $124 sweatshirt was out of my price range. 

- Lack of a Colton Orr fight. I wanted to see him beat up Tootoo or Wade Belak right in front of me. At one point, Tootoo was in front of me and tried hitting someone else (Michal Rozsival, I think?), and ran away from Orr. I yelled at him. He didn't hear me, but my expletive wasn't appreciated by the southern folks.

Ranger Fans

I didn't really see any Ranger fans from NY. There was a wacky couple who follows the team around on the road (I've never seen them at MSG). They were speaking all the players names during warmups like they knew them ("Oh, Scotty." "What's up, Dubi?"). Brandon Dubinsky saw them, and rolled his eyes. Steve Valiquette saw them and smiled politely. She took that as a sign that he wanted to give her his stick. She went for it. She came back empty-handed.

Most of the other fans were from the South but fans of them. One from Mississippi, a couple in front of us from Arkansas who watched Center Ice and were big fans (they travel to Chicago, St. Louis, and Nashville to see the Rangers). One guy I heard lived in Brooklyn a while ago and now lives in Nashville. One lady lived on Long Island but moved to Alabama a while ago, so she drives up for Ranger games. I did see a guy at the airport who is a season-ticket holder at MSG and said he was at the game; and a guy and girl in a bar said they came from Jersey for the game and were glad they wouldn't be alone.

Overall

A good experience, and I'm glad the Rangers came alive in the 2nd and 3rd periods. The seats were incredible - we were so close that Wade Redden heard me when I told him he sucked - both times. I taught the kids next to us - they were from Nashville, first hockey game - how much he gets paid and how awful he plays. Eventually, by about his 10th blunder of the game, they were pointing it out to me. A real bonding experience.

(SIDE NOTE: Redden was awful against the Flyers today, and is making $6.5M to hurt the Rangers' playoff chances. He pinched in on that 2nd goal, then lost his stick, leaving Derek Morris and Ryan Callahan to do his work and their own. Awful play, one of his many this afternoon. Without that one, its a completely different game and maybe they get a point or two.)

When Blair Betts rushed in to the zone on the shorthanded goal, he was right in front of me, and I got nervous seeing it was him. I had previously told those kids next to me that he was the best penalty killer in the league. I jumped a few feet out of my seat when Freddy Sjostrom scored, and then asked the kids if they saw that. They did.

The fans are okay, but it always makes me laugh that in non-traditional hockey markets (like Nashville, North Carolina, and New Jersey) they have to announce when they are on the power play so people know. 

The goal song was awfully weak. They do the same song that 50% of the arenas do... "Na, na na na na, na, na na na na." And they threw in the awful, "You suck!" during it. Also, every player who was starting for the Rangers "SUCKS!" when they are announced. Nice building, no originality.

Not only did they have "ice girls" but they also "other ice girls" who didn't do anything. The one set were on skates and figure skated over the zamboni's work and tosses t-shirts. The useless ones slipped and slid to center ice, stood, waved, and left. It was like they were the back-up cheerleaders but the owners didn't have the heart to cut them so they had them do nothing. Very odd.

They had a mascot, Gnash (get it?), who flew from the rafters during pre-game. Nothing gets me more jazzed up for March hockey than a flying something (is it a saber-tooth tiger?) before the game.

The oddest part of the evening was during a commercial break when Gnash pretended to be in a video game. The Mario Bros. theme song came on, he jogged in place, and people walked by him with ducks, mushrooms, brick boxes, and pipes. It was very awkward, not entirely enjoyable, and made me question why they even paid a mascot at all.

Mark Bell...

So John Tortorella thinks Sean Avery should "stay home" because of a bad joke he made about an ex-girlfriend (comments he made on TSN), but apparently being arrested for a hit and run made while driving under the influence is perfectly acceptable.

Why do the Rangers need another 3rd/4th line winger? Are Nigel Dawes, Lauri Korpikoski, Ryan Callahan, Petr Prucha, Colton Orr, Fred Sjostrom, and Aaron Voros not enough? Not to mention Avery in the wings if he doesn't get picked up by another team on his way up.

Were Theo Fleury and Sandis Ozolinsh not available?

Unless he goes straight to the AHL, or unless this is a prelude to a trade where the Rangers unload a bunch of players, this makes no sense at all. It's not like he's a great value. For Christ's sake, Toronto didn't want him!

Wasn't this the Rangers' problem in the beginning of the year? Too many forwards signed for no reason (Voros, Pat Rissmiller) that there wasn't room for everyone?

* * *

And for the record, I'm not picking on someone who made a mistake once in his life. I'm pointing out that he's a jerk - for lack of a dirty word - and he's always been, on and off the ice.

* * *

Bell was chosen 8th overall in 1998 by the Chicago Blackhawks, 7 spots after Vinny Lecavilier, two spots after Calgary took Rico Fata, one spot after the Rangers chose Manny Malhotra, and 19 spots before New Jersey took Scott Gomez.

Ridiculous...

We all know that "coach" Tom Renney likes to keep lines intact after a win. Well, apparently he has given up on the team, because he isn't tampering with them after a 10-2 "game."

Okay, that's not entirely true. If the beat writers are to be believed (and they should be), Aaron Voros is down on the 4th line and Fred Sjostrom is up on the 3rd.

Why even play Voros? He was great, great!, in October, and has since faded to obscurity. He can't skate, barely hits, is awful on the power play, and takes bad penalties.

Yet, Petr Prucha sits. What has Voros' "size" given this team? I know I harped on this a few days ago, but it adds nothing to the lineup. It doesn't get them power play goals, that's for sure. They couldn't even score in two games against Boston or Atlanta until the 120th minute. It didn't help them not get slaughtered against Dallas.

Ridiculous.

Once again, I know Tom Renney can't do anything about the players he has on the team. But dictating ice time is his one power tool, and he has lost control of that. 

Regardless of whether he thinks Voros is a good player (and besides Voros' family, he might be the only one... which hurts me to say because I know he grew up a Ranger fan and I respect that he is living his dream in blue), wouldn't he want to shake up the lineup?

Remember when they lost in a matinee to Florida in November? It was a 4-0 horror show, and the next game, he inserted Prucha in. Prucha got the game-tying goal in the 3rd and the Rangers beat the Penguins in a shootout.

Is it really time for Renney to go? I'll give him one more game, but if he keeps deploying the same personnel (aka Voros, Scott Gomez, Wade Redden, even Michal Rozsival on the power play), then yes, it is.

Aggravation...

It's aggravating when the Rangers put forth a decent effort and still come up blank - and they have now been outscored 8-0 in their 3 afternoon games this season (4-0 to Panthers, 3-0 to Penguins, 1-0 today to Bruins). You will see other writers and media-types call this a "good game" where they "played well" and were "shown up by a rookie goalie." All the while they were "playing down a man."

That said, my doctor told me I had high blood pressure (slightly), so I won't dwell much, but I will say a few things. (To be sure, I did enjoy this game. I thought it was great back-and-forth action, and very exciting. Another Bruins-Rangers 1-0 game that I enjoyed, I just wish the score was reversed. Since they were again shutout, a lot of flaws came to light.)

"Good game" - How good of a game could they have had if they scored 1 goal? They couldn't break through the Bruins' defense, they had no answer for Zdeno Chara's size and wingspan, and while they won a lot of battles along the boards, the one big one they lost turned into a goal.

"Played well" - Again, they couldn't penetrate the Bruins D. They'd try to split the defenders and get stood up, and Tuukka Rask would clear the puck away easily.

"Shown up by a rookie goalie" - Was Rask good? Indeed. Was he great? Not nearly. He made a few good saves, for sure. And when Michal Rozsival hit the post, he was forced to shoot at the post because Rask gave him nothing else to shoot at. But for the most part, the Rangers shot directly at him. Markus Naslund gets a rare rush, shoots right at the "B" on the goalie's chest. Same for Nikolai Zherdev in the 3rd. Earlier in the game, Zherdev has a slight 2-on-1, and instead of passing with a 50% chance of scoring, he shoots from a poor angle and reduces his chance of scoring to about 5%.

Remember when Rick DiPietro made 56 saves against the Rangers in March 2007? People hailed DP as incredible, when in fact he only had a 60-second period in which he made great saves. The rest were right at the logo or right at his pads, where a Shooter Tutor could've made the saves. The Rangers do this all the time - take a lot of crappy shots and turn the opposing goalie into an NHL Star of the Night.

"Playing down a man" - To be honest, they were better off without Dmitri Kalinin. Even Wade Redden had a decent game (sans his awful penalty when the Bruin player - I think Phil Kessel - was already past him because of his poor play).

* * *

Some of the post-game talk and nighttime talk centered on calling up Artem Anisimov because he is doing really well in the AHL for Hartford. I'm a big Anisimov fan and have been ever since they drafted him in 2006. He should've been a 1st round pick but teams were afraid he would never come over from Russia. The Rangers took a chance and it will probably pay off.

But will it pay off this year? If he comes up, who does he replace? He could take Aaron Voros's spot, but Voros plays with his heart a lot and I would rather see Petr Prucha in instead of Anisimov.

You can't sit Blair Betts or Fred Sjostrom. They are invaluable penalty killers who rarely make a mistake 5-on-5 either.

Does Colton Orr take a seat? Maybe, as he is the worst technical player on the roster. But then you call up a player from Hartford and give him 7 minutes a night? And you need Orr on the team most nights (he wasn't needed against Boston but would you like to face Philadelphia without him on the ice?).

The real culprits in today's shutout loss were Naslund, Scott Gomez, Zherdev, and Chris Drury, who was nearly invisible all day. They are relied upon for scoring and couldn't break through the defense or take shots that had any intention of going in the net.

If Renney would sit a Top 6 forward for Anisimov, I say bring him up. But don't bring him up to toil for 6 or 8 or 10 minutes a night.

Plus, like I said, Petr Prucha is waiting in the wings.

Not Yet Done...

Quick! Name the Rangers forwards under contract!

If you said Scott Gomez, Markus Naslund, Nikolai Zherdev, Blair Betts, Ryan Callahan, Nigel Dawes, Chris Drury, Aaron Voros, Patrick Rissmiller, Dan Fritsche, Brandon Dubinsky, Colton Orr, and Petr Prucha, you win a cookie.*

You also might have said Lauri Korpikoski, Dane Byers, P.A. Parenteau, Artem Anisimov, and/or Greg Moore.

Restricted free agent Freddy Sjostrom might also have made your list.

That's 19 forwards for a 12-man roster. With healthy scratches and injuries, figure 14 forwards on the roster and one (Moore) making the trip from Hartford to MSG for 5 games this year.

Oh, what's that? Brendan Shanahan still might sign?

I don't think Anisimov will make the team, nor do I think Byers will see more than 3 or so games in the NHL this year. Parenteau has the talent - as Anisimov does - but might not be ready. Then again, he might be a better choice in the line-up then Fritsche or Rissmiller. However, you have to think Korpikoski, a 2004 1st round pick, will make the team from training camp.

That's not the point of this blog.

The point of this blog post is that I doubt the Rangers are done. We assume Sjostrom is going to sign, making him the 14th NHL-ready forward on the roster. Then there are youngsters ready to make the jump and play their menial minutes on the 4th line. And then Shanahan might be the dark horse here. He wants to play, he believes he still has it in him, and he believes GM Glen Sather wants him back.

There's no way they go into training camp with this many forwards. Expect a 7th defenseman or a few draft picks to be picked up after the Mats Sundin domino falls.** The 2009 NHL Entry Draft is going to be very deep, and a few extra picks couldn't hurt the Rangers.

* No actual treats will be awarded by the blog owners, although they will recommend the fantastic chocolate creme stuffed Oreos.

** In no may am I hinting that Mats Sundin will become a Ranger. I'm just saying that his self-imposed August 1st deadline for making a decision on what his future holds will be another domino to fall. Remember on July 1 when Brian Campbell signed, then defensemen starting signing left and right, including but not limited to Wade Redden and Michal Rozsival.

Al Montoya...

The Rangers made two deadline deals this year. One of them recently turned into either Nikolai Zherdev or Dan Fritsche (depending on how you look at it) and the other now is this...

Marcel Hossa + Al Montoya = Fred Sjostrom

The night before the deadline, GM Glen Sather and Coyotes GM Don Maloney had a player-for-player deal on the table, Hossa for Sjostrom. It would have been a steal for the Rangers. Hossa was an underachiever who fans expected more from because of his last name (See: Fedorov, Fedor). Along with his 8 points, he had 24 penalty minutes, most probably from hooking. Sjostrom had 19 points (he played 15 more games than Hossa) and 14 penalty minutes. On top of the stats (Sjostrom had 2 points in the regular season as a Ranger), Sjostrom is a much more complete player who is actually going to be in the NHL this upcoming season, while Hossa skates against Ray Emery and Jaromir Jagr in Russia. 

However, the deal was delayed for some reason, and when it got faxed to NHL headquarters, Al Montoya was sent with Hossa for Sjostrom, goalie David LeNeveu and enforcer Josh Gratton.  

On Monday, LeNeveu was signed as a free agent by Anaheim, and yesterday, the Predators signed Gratton, presumably to replace Darcy Hordichuk. 

Now, LeNeveu and Gratton were never, ever in the Rangers plans, as if the signings of Steve Valiquette and Aaron Voros didn't tell you that already.

My beef here is with Sather throwing in Montoya to get these people with expiring contracts to play in Hartford for three months before they sign elsewhere.

Montoya was a first round pick, 6th overall, in 2004. This isn't one of those blogs like when I write about Hugh Jessiman and tell you that they could have drafted 30 other proven NHL players instead of him. But, for the record, just so you know, Drew Stafford, Alex Radulov (a future Hall of Famer, I called it here first!), Wojtek Wolski, Andrej Meszaros, Mike Green, Johan Franzen, Mark Streit (he of the $4.1M/year deal), and Daniel Winnick were all chosen after him. A weak draft, yes, but still.

Montoya was supposed to be incredible. He went 30-10-3 one year in college, 30-7-3 another year. However, he was a bust and deemed expendable when Henrik Lundqvist burst onto the scene after the lock-out. He never quite developed like he was supposed to (See: Tyutin, Fedor). No longer was he the Future. Instead, he was Money in the Bank, albeit money with a bad back.

Personally, I think Sather held onto him too long. He did do well in the AHL, so he wasn't a total bust. He went 66-34-4, completely respectable (although his save % was very poor sometimes). This past season, he lost his starting job, and other GMs knew this. Sather should have traded him at the 2007 deadline when he was a developing goaltender with a solid record who started for his AHL team. As a former first round pick, he could have fetched atleast a 2nd round pick.

Now, he seems like he was just thrown in the deal to get him out of Sather's hair, like he was a nuisance and he would take anything to get rid of him.

He might in fact go the way of Jessiman and never see action in an NHL game. He could be a late bloomer (ran out of people whose first names are "Fedor," so I can't give an example) and become starting goaltender of the Las Vegas Panthers in the 2012-13 season.

My point is that he seems like a throw in. Sather knew LeNeveu and Gratton would never, ever put a Rangers jersey on. He knew Maloney just wanted more for Sjostrom so it didn't look like a fix, and so he offered up someone Maloney wanted to draft in the first place.

In-Game Blogging...

Jarkko Ruutu is like Ville Nieminen without the skill.

Now that Freddy Sjostrom has a permanent spot on the team, I wonder if I can peel off the "KROG" on the back of my #20 jersey and put "SJOSTROM" on it. (Okay, that's a lie, "RUCCHIN" is on my #20 Liberty jersey.)